Musical Instruments

still-life

A number of musical instruments are placed in apparent disorder on a large table with carved legs, the top of which crosses the canvas horizontally. A dark green cloth placed loosely on it reveals to the left an open drawer from which a musical score hangs out. The falling fabric subtly breaks the strict symmetry of the table, producing the illusion of an attractive contour similar to the many found among the instruments.

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About the Artist

Evaristo Baschenis

1617 – 1677

Italian painter, the most prominent of a family of artists recorded from 1400. He was ordained c. 1647 and painted a few religious subjects, but his fame rests chiefly on his beautifully poised and polished still-lifes of muscial instruments. His predilection for the subject may have been associated with the contemporary fame of the Amati family of violin-makers of Cremona, which is near to Baschenis's native town of Bergamo. The Accademia Carrara there has the best collection of his paintings.

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